New glide cracks visible in North Seattle Ridge near God's Country - one visible recent release.
**Photo of Seattle Ridge Glide avalanche was taken a few days later 1/29/19 from Tincan after more snow filled in the brown smear.
Observation: Turnagain
Location: Sunburst
Standard Sunburst W. shoulder to a high point of 3400′. Looking to see how widespread the reactivity of the 1/21 (MLK Jr. Day) buried surface hoar was in the upper to mid-elevation bands.
Recent glide avalanche on Seattle Ridge, North of the up-track.
Observer Comments
Weather
Mid Upper 20s
Broken Sky
No Precip
Calm-Light Winds
Snow surface
Road to ~1400' - Supported rain crust
~1400-1500'- Supportable crust beginning to decompose no obvious faceting in grains
~1500-2100'- Loss of supportable crust
~2000-3400'- Various wind texture throughout, less resistance down ~6" on a density step
Snowpack
The MLK Jr Day (1/21) BSH layer was still found wide spread at multiple elevation bands. We saw it in multiple hand pits and one test pit.
Beginning at 2000' we were able to find that MLK Jr BSH buried approx 12" down and shear in a planar fashion on top of a MF interface.
At 2800' we lost the MF interface, but still found the MLK Jr BSH buried approx 12" down and shear in a planar fashion on top of 1F- snow.
At 3400' the MLK Jr BSH was a very obvious line approx 16" down in the snowpack and showed propagation propensity in multiple stability tests.
Sunburst W Ridge - 3400' - SW Aspect - HS:230cm - 30 degree slope - Airtemp: -4 c
CT20 down 40cm on MLK Jr BSH (5-7mm BSH)
ECTP22 down 40cm on MLK Jr BSH (5-7mm BSH)
ECTP21 down 40cm on MLK Jr BSH (5-7mm BSH)
PST 30/100 (END) down 40cm on MLK Jr BSH (5-7mm BSH)
Sunburst W. Ridge - 2300' - MLK jr BSH layer 30cm down planar hand shear
Sunburst W. Ridge - 2800' - MLK jr BSH layer, obvious upright BSH
Sunburst W. Ridge - 3400' - SW Aspect - BSH Obvious in pitwall
Sunburst W. Ridge - 3400' - SW Aspect - Pitwall information
Sunburst W. Ridge - 3400' - SW Aspect - Planar shear in ECT (ECTP22 down 40cm)
This is a photo of the glide avalanche a few days later, taken from Tincan.